The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus with which recording papers in the form of sheets of a format at least smaller than A4, e.g. A5, are usable.
A facsimile apparatus generally used has a construction which meets the standard specifications as recommended by CCITT (Consultative Committee of International Telegraph and Telephone). One of the specifications is that the apparatus be capable of receiving at least one full page of picture which is sized A4. Meanwhile, a facsimile apparatus is often used to send documents which are smaller in size than A4, as typified by slips of a format A5. This simetimes requires pictures to be directly received in the format A5.
Usually, a recorder installed in a facsimile apparatus includes a thermal head having an array of heat-generating elements each of which corresponds in dimensions to a pixel, the elements corresponding one-to-one to pixels in one complete line. Used with the thermal head is a roll of thermal paper which colors only in portions thereof to which heat is applied. In this type of recorder, the paper carrying a received picture is cut in a slightly larger size than a document transmitted after being discharged and, in addition, the cutting timing differs from one transmitting apparatus to another. Therefore, the resultant papers are irregularly dimensioned to make future filing work troublesome.
Although papers in the form of A5 sheets may be used to cope with the above problem, such brings about another problem that where only one paper is left a picture of an A4 format document cannot be recorded, contrary to the CCITT recommendation. While A4 sheets may be equipped with together with A5 sheets in order to implement reception of A4 documents, the above-stated problem still arises when no A4 sheets are left.